Wrath as America’s Largest Confederate Monument to Reopen Independence Day

Atlanta, Georgia faces renewed calls for the removal of the Stone Mountain Confederate Monument after activists voiced outrage at the monument’s planned reopening on Independence Day weekend.

The nine-story-high bas-relief sculpture was temporarily closed after the current coronavirus pandemic struck the United States, but many activists have long demanded its permanent removal due to its controversial history.

Recent demands for the removal of the monument have been fueled by national civil unrest caused by the death of George Floyd and subsequent calls for officials to topple representations of slavery and colonial power in the United States.

The civil rights group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized a march last week insisting that the carving should be removed from the mountainside.

“Here we are in Atlanta, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and we still have the largest Confederate monument in the world,” said Gerald Griggs, vice president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP.

“It is time for our state to get on the right side of history.”

The 100-plus-meter monument, completed in 1972 on a rock wall northeast of Atlanta, features images of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederation of 11 States, and two of his military leaders, Robert E Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

The three men presented at the monument were slave owners.

“The entirety of Stone Mountain was erected to show what some white Georgians revered,” said Maurice J Hobson, associate professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University.

The mountain has also long maintained the symbolism of white supremacists, with the Klu Klux Klan using it as the location of a 1915 revival ceremony with burning crosses.

The extremist organization is still reported to hold occasional meetings near the monument, often meeting with protesters behind the police tape.

The Sons of the Confederate Veterans, advocates of the “Cause of the South,” have argued that the removal of stature is like an act of purging American history.

The Cause of the South argues that the civil war was fought to defend the rights of states to withdraw from the Union in the face of Northern aggression, rather than the preservation of slavery.

Professor Hobson described the Cause of the South as “a false story” that minimizes the role of slavery in war.

John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Stone Mountain Memorial Association said the debate over the monument has been going on for years and that they are “sensitive to it.”

“We want to tell the story as it is, not as some say it is,” he said.

Professor Hobson has suggested that more sculptures be added to the rock, including historical African American figures and civil rights leaders.

“It must be put in a context that forces a conversation, a serious conversation,” he said. “The easiest way to rectify it is to surround it.”

However, NAACP’s Mr. Griggs said there is no doubt that the monument should be removed entirely.

“Put it down,” he said. “Restore the mountain to its original state”.

Additional reports from Reuters.